Words I’ve learned from watching Downton Abbey:
Dogsbody
Hobbledehoy
Saturday-to-Monday
Add yours.
No, it was made quite clear that this was a marriage of convenience. Over time Robert & Cora came to love each other, but it did not start out that way.
At post 190 Ascenray gave a link to the proper spot for that discussion.
No, Cora has openly teased Robert about how long after their marriage he fell in love with her. He insisted it wasn’t very long at all. . .
All that we know about Cora & Robert’s marriage was that his family needed her family’s money to save their precious pile; he didn’t love her but fell in love within the first year. I was hoping Martha Levinson’s visit would clear up some of the details. How did Cora feel about the match? (She could have already had a crush on Robert.) Which parent was so eager to sign over a large portion of the family fortune? (Martha hardly seemed to give a fuck about that nobility stuff.)
But we didn’t learn anything new about the past during Ms Maclaine’s long cameo. Lord Kitchener-Fellowes may be saving those details for a possible prequel; this article explains the phenomenon of American husband hunters. And even mentions Consuelo Vanderbilt, 9th Duchess of Marlborough, whose divorce was discussed in the last episode…
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. . . Which parent was so eager to sign over a large portion of the family fortune? (Martha hardly seemed to give a fuck about that nobility stuff.)
. . .
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I was surprised by that too. I had just assumed that Cora’s mother was one of those title-hungry American heiresses of the time.
I haven’t seen the documentary, but assuming it is that would take, even at far better interest rates than today’s, many millions to generate indefinitely and the cost will never get any lower. And IIRC this was a generation or two after many titled families had begun losing their ancestral estates (Blenheim would probably have sunk if not for Vanderbilt money) so the Crawleys would certainly know things aren’t getting cheaper. If Matthew and Mary have a son they’ll have to start shopping heiresses his age before they leave the hospital just to assure another generation of not touching the principal.
Does anybody know the approximate date of the most recently aired episode? Bloody Sunday (one of about a dozen events called that, it would seem) was in November 1920 and I was wondering if the series had progressed that far yet. (No spoilers requested, obviously, but I can’t see how they couldn’t at least mention it in depth with Branson being bigger in the plot this season.)
Bitchy comment in 3… 2…
Dan Stevens is still cute, but you can tell he doesn’t have “will still be sexy at sixty” looks. Without being significantly overweight he’s already developing a double chin. He needs to go ahead and shop high money offers to take his clothes off while there’s still a market, and if he’ll entertain a bid from Downton that might convince me to give more to PBS.
I remember that back in the '70s and '80s, you did occasionally see some nudity on Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery!.
I don’t think that it’s November quite yet but you bring up a good point. The first wedding would have been in the Spring, I think, and the honeymoon was a month long. It’s probably around July. I hope that they do delve into that because it would be very interesting.
I, CLAUDIUS* has some moderate nudity.
I remember seeing nudity in Rumpole of the Bailey, even.
Oh man! I totally forgot all about that. Do we know what Cora’s family actually got out of the deal? Other than a daughter with a title that is?
Enormous social prestige. A daughter who was a countess. Hopefully a grandson who is an earl. Of course now they get a granddaughter who is a countess. Granddaughters eligible to marry into the English aristocracy.
The Titled European&Rich American marriages were all the rage. If you were rich you had to have one or more in the family: the Vanderbilts, Goulds, Astors, and lots of less wealthy families had them. This was a nouveau riche culture with a level of riche that has rarely if ever been seen before or since (e.g. the Vanderbilt family would be worth well hundreds of B-illions of 2013 USD when their fortune is seen as a percentage of the GNP), but for many of the same families their servants were better educated and more refined and had documented ancestries superior to their own, so anything that brought validity was sought.
And validity came from Europe, so if you could nab some titles for your grandkids and some of those pretty marble staircases and orchestra galleries and some Rembrandts and Titians while you were over there, “you was bona-fide”.
I bet this Patrick/Peter guy shows up again, and ends up being the real heir. That would make it convenient that Edith, who had been in love with him, is still unmarried. It just always seemed weird to me that they’d waste half an episode on this guy, yank him out, and we never see him again.
On their drive to the picnic at the maybe-Downton Place, it looked to me like the trees were in spring bloom.
Baldrick of Blackadder was a dogsbody.
Does anyone else suspect the problems with the stove may lead to the house catching fire? It would be a way to dispose of one or two characters that have become distractions to the major plot threads.
Characters may come & go. But surely we’re not getting rid of Downton Abbey. The family would have to move into that hovel…with a mere 8 servants. The humanity!
Speaking of, those would be 8 very busy servants because that place was still (to borrow Brandon’s term) a fairy castle to most people. Unless perhaps he meant 8 grunts in additon to Carson, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Padmore, and Thomas.
I liked the revelation that Mrs. Hughes is “not as crazy about” the upstairs folks as Carson. Apparently she could take or leave the Crawleys.
Or Mr Levinson was a self-made millionare from humble (& possible Jewish) origins who was never really accepted in New York society and wanted English nobility as in-laws to throw in his peers’ faces. According to Fellow’s official companion book he was a dry-goods merchant from Cincinnati.